


this love is alive back from the dead (glowing in the dark)

by nicolewithasoul



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, It's a soulmate au, JATP Secret Santa 2020, Soulmate AU, i don't make the rules, it starts a little angsty but it gets fluffier, juke, julie and luke are in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28241061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nicolewithasoul/pseuds/nicolewithasoul
Summary: The world from the view of Julie Molina as she gains the colors that brighten life.*JATP Secret Santa 2020 Work!!!!!!*
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	1. i live my life like it's red (blazing through the sunrise)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EchoCharm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EchoCharm/gifts).



> The title is two modified lines from this love by the queen taylor swift. 
> 
> To my secret Santa, I really hope that you like this! I've never done a soulmate au before so this was super exciting and I really enjoyed writing it!
> 
> Also, I am not a professional songwriter. I have included lyrics in this work and they were all written by me, but please don't judge them super harshly!

For the longest time, Julie Molina thinks that she is soulmate-less. She thinks that her world will forever exist in shades of black and white, monochrome and bland. She thinks that she is the anomaly in the grand plan of the universe, that whatever powers above dropped the strands of her fate while they were knitting the world together.

Most people get their first colors young, when they interact with their soulmate in the most inconspicuous of ways, a hobby shared or a song heard that the other loved. They come at different times, each bond different, but being colorless at sixteen means only one thing. That her soulmate is non-existent and that she is destined to be alone forever.

She thinks that it is the universe's idea of a cruel joke, to give someone that would otherwise be so bright a colorless view of the world. She watches in greyscale as her friends and family slowly gain their colors, listens to them describe the nuances of each individual shade, turns away from the news when a story about soulmates runs

She says that she is fine but she isn't, hiding beneath smiles and walls that she builds so tall and so strong. She protects herself with the shields that pain nurtured and grew. She thinks herself a broken girl, one who is forever alone and a blindfold being pulled over her eyes in a world full of brightness and love.

She grows up and she watches and she listens, her heart breaking from a too-young age. The universe isn't kind to Julie Molina, the strands of her fate twisting together with loss.

* * *

It seems like the universe is laughing at her when a year after her father's world turned black and white, hers explores with color.

It starts when her life is at its lowest, when she feels like everything is falling apart. It starts when she is about to get kicked out of the music program, when her relationships are on the road to dust. It starts low, but the only place low can go is high.

It starts when she walks into her mom's studio. A year since she has let herself really step inside it, to not make just a quick dash in and out to water the plants and make sure that everything isn't falling apart before her eyes. She walks into the studio and feels like everything is hitting her at once again. The pain washes over her, the ebbing ocean coming back at high tide.

She pulls the sheet off the piano, taking a deep breath when her heart feels like it is being stabbed by a million daggers. The phantom shadow of her mother presses into the back of her mind as she runs a hand over the keys. The last remnants of her mom as an alive breathing force are here, in the music that she left and the memories that live with her daughter.

Her mother would understand, Julie tells herself as she sits at the piano, looking up. Her mother would understand, she thinks, as she climbs the ladder to the upper floor. Her mother would understand, she tries to convince herself as she slides a random CD that she finds into the player.

The music plays and the first opening notes of the song ring through the air, upbeat and rocky. It reminds her of early Trevor Wilson, his first album, the one he made right before he got big. And with every thought of Trevor comes the twinge of pain of Carrie. She shrugs it off, closing her eyes against the image of the girls dancing around, a mean sugar smile on bright pink lips.

It's black and white as she sits on the couch, it's monochrome until it isn't. She is alone in the studio, sitting by herself until she isn't.

Three boys poof into existence in her mother's studio, and the world is no longer black and white. Red bursts into her vision as they stumble around. It stuns her, her whole life flipped upside down. Her body feels like it was drenched with ice water, goosebumps crawling along her skin.

It's a cosmic pull to the boy with no sleeves, a ghost in her studio. And it scares her, it shakes her to the bone. So she screams and she runs, red glowing in her eyes.

_I live my life like it's red_  
_Blazing through the sunrise_


	2. i feel just like a stain- stain (orange rain and sunny glass panes)

Orange comes when she least expects it, when she is surrounded by memories that sting. Sitting at the piano, looking at the sheet music her mom left to her, her heart feels like it could burst. But she needs the closure, needs to get over this hill that she's stuck peddling upon.

Her fingers drag over the black and white keys, inhaling a lungful of air. Nerves twist in her stomach. _What if she_ _isn't_ _good enough? What if she_ _can't_ _do it? What if she g_ _ives_ _up_ _now_ _, the last remnants of her mother fading out into nothing? What if what if what if?_

She pushes those thoughts away, deep breath deep breath deep breath, focus on the music. Let the music surround your body, let it calm your mind. Her mother always told her that, whispered it into her ear when she felt like she was drowning under the pressure.

She presses down on the keys, a melody flooding out of her. It is hesitant at first, quiet and weak, her heart beating, faster faster faster. The song pours out of her, stronger stronger stronger. She grows, she straightens up, her heart mending, her eyes opening.

"So get up, get out, relight that spark  
You know the rest by heart," she sings, and her vision floods orange with the rising sun. Music is her connection with Luke, with a ghost who died twenty-five years ago. Music brings more color into her life, her eyes opening wider.

It is rich, the sun rushing in and painting the world in color. She can't believe that she had been deprived of the light, had been willing to live her life without it. It sets her on fire, makes her wake up, and she embraces the change with a burning heart.

_I feel just like a stain- stain_   
_Orange rain and sunny glass panes_


	3. you're looking at the sunrise (and i'm looking at you)

Yellow is warm and buttery. It's light and it's bright and it's the color of the sun beating down on earth. Julie can see how people compare the energy of people to the beams of the sun. How someone can glow so bright that the first thing people think of is what gives the world life.

Yellow comes to Julie, and by extension Luke, on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. Julie sits at her desk, light streaming in through her window. Luke sits across from her on her bed, one of the rare occasions that she lets him sit there with out yelling "boundaries" at him.

Luke admires the way that the sunshine hits her face, highlighting her features and showcasing the brilliant smile that she turned on him. There's a goofy smile on his face, eyes trained and focused on her like she's the only thing in the world that truly exists.

Julie bends over a piece of paper, a strand of hair falling into her face. The designated scribe since Luke's handwriting looks like chicken scratch and is a ghost that can't hold a pen, she writes down the lyric that the boy just spouted. The song they were working on together was personal, one that they kept close to their hearts.

"What if we reference the beginning lyric in this line?" she asks him, pointing to the paper with her pen. It's labeled purple, a color that she can't quite see. The memory of labeling the pens makes Julie smile, thinking back to when her mother held her right after she had been found crying, how her mother had whispered that it was alright for her to see in black and white. They had written out the labels together, the one stuck on the purples pen done in childish handwriting, the letters crooked and uneven. It makes Julie feel warm inside, the way that there are fewer jagged edges on the memories of her mother now, fewer iron shards poking into her when she thinks about soulmates. Because she had a stupid ghost himbo sitting across from her. Because the world was no longer in monochrome shades of grey.

"Jules, you're a genius," Luke cries, jumping up from his lying position to circle around Julie. He wishes that he could hug her, that he could twirl her around, but the non-physical connection between them would have to be enough for now.

She blushes, glows crimson, feeling herself grow hot. He stares at her with no shame, adoration in his eyes.

Luke smiles at Julie and she feels set on fire. The world is burning bright and light and it's warm and it's good and it's yellow. Yellow surrounds them and it's so good. It's so good and Julie wants to stay in this moment forever, laughing with Luke as their gazes expand, as they learn more about the spectrum of color that exists. The world is golden and Julie can't stop smiling. 

_You're looking at the sunrise and I'm looking at you_  
_The yellow warmth of your smile outshining the spectacle of the sky_


	4. i live my life as if I'm new (green eyes and I'm looking at you)

When Julie thinks of green, she thinks of what she has been told is green. Primary school teachers gave her basic definitions, the color IDs and color wheels hanging in the art classroom. Her mother told that green was like the Earth, all-encompassing and vast. She has been told that green is like life. She thinks of the tender shoots of plants pushing their way through dark soil, fighting and fighting their way to the top.

Green is, green is so much more than that. Green used to be Julie's least favorite color. Her mom's favorite had always been purple, so that's what Julie diligently wrote down on every paper that ever asked her.

Green is the color of Luke's eyes, and it's no longer her least favorite color. How could it be, when what she sees whenever she looks at her soulmate? The color of his eyes is ingrained in her mind now. Beautiful and life and green.

Green doesn't come all at once. It comes in gentle waves, soft touches of color that appear when she isn't looking. She fully realizes what she was given, the gift of green, when she's starting at Luke. It startles her, that suddenly his eyes are so bright. But she embraces it.

And one day, in a quiet moment, she confesses to him, the feelings bubbling up inside her about his eyes. And she writes it down.

_I live my life as if I'm new_   
_Green eyes and I'm looking at you_


	5. blue is here and there (it's everywhere)

Blue is the universal color of sadness. This Julie knows before she could even see the color. "It's the blue curtains," her English teacher would say, "they symbolize the way that the main character is feeling." The metaphors for blue are sown throughout the language that she speaks every day, even if she can't really see what they mean.

She finds _Unsaid Emily_ in the garage, not on purpose, no, not on purpose. And she makes the split second decision to go to Luke's parent's house. She hesitates outside the door, butterflies fluttering in her stomach (her soulmate's parents, not like she can tell them that, but still), when Luke poofs into the space beside her. 

"What are you doing here?" he asks her, and she flounders.

She tells him that she wants to know him better, and she feels bad when he talks about boundaries. She looks down, apologizes, and her vision flickers. For the briefest second, she sees something new flood it, a new color that goes along with the pangs of sadness for her soulmate in her heart. "Trust me," she says, and she watches his fingers press the doorbell.

Luke's dad opens the door. She introduces herself, and her vision is slowly getting more saturated. The sky above is no longer as dull. He invites her in, she gives him the song.

Luke's mother breaks down, tears drip down Luke's face. And the blue comes in full force. Sadness washes over everyone in the room, from the girl to the parents to the ghost.

Blue is a deep color. Blue is the ocean, blue is the sky. Blue is the color that surrounds them as _Unsaid Emily_ plays in the back of their minds. Blue is the color that Luke sees when he cries.

_Blue is here and there, it's everywhere, yeah_  
_It's all that we see, in your eyes and mine_


	6. Edge of the rainbow (violet glow)

Julie thinks that the boys are going to stand her up. She stands still backstage at the Orpheum, her heart sinking, her mood dropping, her smile pulling down at the edges. She thinks of all the whispered promises, and the shouted ones, and wonders how they could do this to her again.

"Something's wrong," she tells Flynn as she worries. Tears collect in her eyes, not daring to fall yet, and she hates the way that her voice breaks. "They wouldn't stand me up again." She hopes against hope that it's true, waiting and waiting. There's only so long that time can stretch, only so long that she can delay.

Flynn tries to comfort her, but the blue still seeps in. The ocean still flows over her, cerulean popping in the corners of her vision. Flynn is talking but it falls on ears that aren't listening. Julie runs, she runs away.

She bursts into the alleyway, color surrounding her. She's just missing one, one is dangling just out of reach, the color of her dress grey. Alex told her that it looked good, that it complimented her skin tone. Her voice is breaking as she talks to her mom, tear tracks running down her face.

Maybe this isn't meant to be. Maybe it really is igood to be true, that it can't last forever. "I just wish you were here," she says to her mom, and she means it with her whole heart. She wishes and she wishes and she wishes even as she knows that not all wishes can come true.

Maybe the power of wishes aren't as feeble as she thinks, when a woman carrying a bunch of flowers offers a pinkish-red dahlia to Julie. It feels like a sign, some cosmic intervention from her mother. She looks down at the flower and in the corner of her eyes she sees the fabric of her dress start to bleed into color. It gives her hope, gives her warmth. She turns and runs back into the Orpheum, ready to face the crowd. She may have to be physically alone on stage, but she knows that her mother will be with her in every note that she sings.

She stares out at the crowd, stepping up to the piano. The faces of her family shine up at her, their proud smiles making her feel less alone up on the stage. She starts to sing, and her voice is quiet. It feels like she is missing something, a key component missing from her chemical equation, but she keeps going. She keeps singing, and it pays off.

Her boys flicker in around her, and the spectrum of her vision grows richer. Luke is trying and trying and trying and then he's there and then the world glows purple. They finally have all of their colors, soulmates in love with a look. Soulmates that know each other inside and out, soulmates in music and in life.

_Livin' my life in a violet glow_  
_Standing on the edge of the rainbow_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please give me any comments or anything that you like!


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